PETA's Independence Day Message Calls for Liberty and Justice for Captive Marine Mammal Prisoners
For Immediate Release:
July 2, 2015
Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382
Orlando, Fla. – A massive banner proclaiming, “Orcas at SeaWorld Want Freedom, Too!” will fly over Orlando on the Fourth of July. The banner will spend 35 minutes circling above SeaWorld during the park’s 1 p.m. “One Ocean” orca show in addition to flying over Disney, Universal Studios, and other tourist attractions. PETA hopes to remind everyone that while people across the country celebrate freedom, orcas at SeaWorld are trapped in barren, cramped tanks and forced to perform circus-style tricks:
When: Saturday, July 4, 12–2 p.m.
Where: The plane will fly over Orlando tourist attractions and circle directly over SeaWorld Orlando (7007 SeaWorld Dr.) from approximately 12:50–1:25 p.m.
“The Fourth of July is a celebration of our freedom—and today, PETA is fighting for freedom for the orcas who are denied everything that’s natural and important to them at SeaWorld,” says PETA Foundation Deputy General Counsel Delcianna Winders. “On Independence Day of all days, it’s critical to take a stand against SeaWorld and any other park that sentences marine mammals to a lifetime of imprisonment in a tiny concrete tank.”
Orcas at SeaWorld are forcibly bred, separated from their families, and confined to barren tanks that, to them, are the size of a bathtub. PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—is calling on SeaWorld to develop ocean sanctuaries in which orcas could be rehabilitated and finally have the opportunity to engage in natural behavior that visitors could observe from nearby “whale watching” centers.
For more information, please visit PETA.org.
